A project designed to experimentally define the pathophysiology and formulate a management approach to the complication of infection associated with prosthetic vascular grafting is in progress. The project is divided into three major sections: the first part is designed to evaluate the duration that a plastic vascular graft is susceptible to infection of bacteremic origin following implantation. Following this, an evaluation of potential differences in infectability rate between the various available prostheses will be carried out. The second stage is designed to develop fresh tissue alternative to be used in infected or contaminated fields, and the third part of the project is designed to develop methods for preserving conduits in a viable state for ease of availability in the reconstruction of vascular continuity in the presence of infection or contamination. We have demonstrated that the knitted Dacron prosthesis remains susceptible to infection as long as one year following implantation in that there was a 30% incidence of infection when grafts were harvested following a single bacteremic challenge one year after original implantation. At the present time three grafts are being examined for comparative rates of infectability. These include the external velour prosthesis, expanded Teflon prosthesis, and lightweight knitted Dacron grafts. The results to date show a clear superiority in favor of the external velour graft. A comparative evaluation of fresh arterial autografts and allografts implanted in infected fields demonstrated that both of these fresh tissue alternates were able to function and permit the clearing of infection. The third phase of the project is in progress with the establishment of cryopreservation procedures using liquid nitrogen and the development of a rat model capable of receiving an infrarenal aortic transplant having been preserved in 10% DMSO and frozen with liquid nitrogen.